Linguistics
News and Events
In-Person and Remote Advising Available
The Department of Linguistics will be operating remotely this summer. In person and remote appointments are available by appointment.
Please see our Faculty and Staff page for office hours and contact information.
Linguistics Tutoring
Tutoring is available for all linguistics students.
- Mondays, 10-11 via Zoom
- Thursdays, 1-3 in BH 103
Lexicosyntactic coherence and complex verb morphology
Dr. Edward Vajda will present his current research, drawing on two linguistic isolates of northern Asia, Ket and Nivkh, to argue for two fundamentally different types of polysynthesis, offering implications for historical-comparative linguistics.
Ireland: Language, Power, History
Students from Western had the opportunity to travel to Ireland and take part in an immersive learning experience centered on the history of Irish language, history, power, and identity.
Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Linguistics
In our courses here at Western, we are interested in the ways in which the study of language can provide the tools, the analytical skills, and the historical and cultural context to better understand the ways in which language is used to separate, segregate, and discriminate.
Read our Racial Justice Statement
It’s important to us that our department is not only a welcoming place for everyone, intolerant of discrimination, but that we are actively working to dismantle power structures that serve to discriminate against underrepresented populations.
Welcome Incoming Students!
Western's Department of Linguistics has a cohort of about 170 students, and an eager and active Associated Students Linguistics Club. Faculty from several departments contribute to our department, including from Modern and Classical Languages, Anthropology, and Computer Science.
We lead students not only to find interesting and engaging careers, but also to give back to their communities in important ways. Our alumni are teaching, creating, writing, analyzing, and serving in a vast array of careers and civic engagement.
“Linguistics has helped me to approach language scientifically, to appreciate the beauty of language, and to feel constantly surrounded by ambient language data that always leaves me with interesting questions to think about.”
Student Spotlight
We want to hear from you. If you have news to share, email us at linguistics@wwu.edu or call us at 360-650-3914.
2024-2025 Department of Linguistics Outstanding Graduating Senior
Anuk Centellas stands out among her peers as a consummate collaborator, scholar, problem-solver, and engaged member of our community. Anuk is a member of three research groups - two in Linguistics, Dr. Maura O’Leary’s language revitalization lab and Dr. Jordan Sandoval’s Language Learning Research Group - as well as Dr. Brian Hutchinson’s Machine Learning Research Group in Computer Science. (Anuk is a double major in Math/Computer Science and Linguistics.) Faculty comment on her brilliance, humility, and leadership, and are impressed with the ways she has connected her diverse interests in multilingual language technology, language teaching and learning, language revitalization, linguistic analysis, and language ethics in so many different ways and across subfields and disciplinary boundaries.
Anuk Centellas2024-2025 Department of Linguistics Outstanding Graduating Senior
2024-2025 Department of Linguistics Exceptional Student Awardees
Red Sheets and Ari Rose
2024-2025 Exceptional Student in Spanish-Linguistics Awardees
Rosie O’Malley-Knudson and Elyana Steinberg
2025-2026 Linguistics Scholarship Awardees
Linguistics Students Scholarships
Madeleine Bordenet, Valerie Bertolet
Anne Lobeck Linguistics Scholarship
Lucy Wells, Kristen Saturday, Zoe Kelton, Emily Wren
Denham Family Linguistics Scholarship
Peregrin Hunjan
Shaw Gynan Memorial Scholarship
Hayley Abella
Linguistics Department Research Showcase Student Presenters 2025
Madeleine Bordenet
“Mock Language: Underlying Stereotyping and Language Ideologies”
Anuk Centellas
“Data Formatting and Plotting App for the Spanish LLRG”
Vera Livingston
“Exhaustive focus marking in Telugu”
Ari Rose
“Pronouns in Telugu - Proximity and Participation”
Sophia Scumniatoles
“Conversational Variability of Speech Tempo in Highland Puebla Nahuatl”
Faculty Spotlight
R. Mata featured in Atlas Obscura
"There’s No Right Way to Say ‘Taco’," by Dan Nosowitz, featuring WWU Linguistics Professor R. Mata, explores how the pronunciation of "taco" in English, diverging from its original Spanish pronunciation, reflects broader linguistic phenomena. It delves into how people adapt foreign words to their native tongue and what these adaptations reveal about cultural identity and how individuals wish to be perceived.
One Quick Question
Dr. Kristin Denham answers the question, "Generation Alpha's slang is in the news lately; is it a unique phenomenon or is there a pattern in how each generation forms its own slang?"
Dr. Kristin Denham
Professor Kristin Denham, Department of Linguistics, has been inducted into the 2024 class of Fellows of the Linguistics Society of America.
About the Linguistics Department
Linguistics is the scientific study of language, focusing on investigating the properties of individual languages as well as the characteristics of language as a whole. Linguists are interested in a wide range of questions about language: questions like what language is made of (its internal grammar), how language is processed and produced, how people use language in societies, how children and adults acquire language, and how languages change over time. The study of linguistics connects to the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences and complements interests in fields such as Anthropology, Computer Science, Communication Sciences and Disorders, Neuroscience, Sociology, Psychology, Biology, Philosophy, English, World Languages, and Education.
Contact Information
Mailing Address
Linguistics Department
Western Washington University
516 High Street, MS 9190
Bellingham, WA 98225
Office
Bond Hall 418
Phone: 360-650-3914
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